Hi jitu_jaga,
Even though both the past simple and continuous may be grammatically correct, I wouldn’t say that they are interchangeable because they do have different meanings. To see those meanings clearly, we need to look at a larger piece of text. We cannot look only at a single sentence, because the meanings refer to other actions/verbs in the text.
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Here are some examples from a story called ‘Love me, love me not’ (you can find the full story here).
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She sat down next to him at the table. He was eating in front of a big pile of books, looking cute with a pen behind his ear.
Here, the past continuous shows us that he started eating before she sat down. It would not have the same meaning if the writer had used past simple here (“She sat down … He ate …”). Instead, that would mean a repeated action (i.e., he always ate in that way), or perhaps a single action that started after she sat down.
Kate was putting clothes away while the baby slept. She picked up one of Michael’s favourite jumpers and held the soft material next to her cheek.
Here, the past continuous shows that the action (putting clothes away) is a background action for the main story events (the baby slept / she picked up Michael’s jumper). By using the past continuous, the writer shows the reader that putting clothes away is not a main event, and that something else more important happened during it. In contrast, if the writer had used past simple (“Kate put clothes away”), it would present the action as a main story event (these are normally told using the past simple, in a past narrative).
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So, writers use the past continuous to relate the action to others in the story. In this way, writers of stories can create more stories that are more interesting and realistic. On the other hand, using the past simple for most or all verbs in a text is more typical of factual reports, where writers aim to simply report what happened event by event.
I hope that helps to understand it.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHICH
